Posts tagged SCD

Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis are the two most severe digestive afflictions. They cause life impairing symptoms, necessitate long-term dependence on powerful drugs, and often result in debilitating surgery and even death. Tens of thousands of Americans are affected. Both diseases are classified under the medical rubric of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

The incidence of IBD has risen with the tide of civilization

Once thought of as a psychosomatic illness arising in individuals with “passive personalities with a tendency to suppress personal conflicts,” the cause of IBD remains elusive.

One theory holds that modern measles virus, improperly cleared from the body, results in low grade, chronic inflammation of the intestinal lymphoid tissue; other hypotheses posit a relationship to contemporary diet. Indeed intake of sugar and “junk food” has been correlated in many studies with susceptibility to both forms of IBD. Some researches have even suggested that the abrasive “polishers” found in modern toothpastes set up inflammatory reactions in the gut. A higher incidence of IBD has even been reported after tonsillectomy. Oral contraceptive users also have an increased risk.

Curiously, the role of diet therapy for IBD is minimized by the gastroenterology establishment. One authoritative text, after devoting 20 pages to minute details of IBD diagnosis and drug and surgical treatments, notes tersely: “In mild to moderate ulcerative colitis, there is no need to impose general dietary restrictions.”

This might sound, at the very least, counterintuitive to an informed layperson, who would question the dissociation between what a person eats and the condition of the selfsame alimentary canal through which food passes. The situation is analogous to that of a hydraulic engineer who makes no allowance for pipe corrosion susceptibility based on the acidity or chemical characteristics of the fluid the pipe conducts.

Ignoring diet in IBD also flies in the face of much evidence linking poor diets, especially those high in sugar and starches like bread and potatoes, to ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease incidence. Historical documents date back to Greek and Roman times with references to detoxifying protocols that prompted remission in intestinal diseases.

Remission of Crohn’s Disease may be maintained for long periods when foods to which patients are intolerant are identified and eliminated from the patient’s diet, according to researchers from Cambridge, England, as reported in Drug Therapy (January 1986).

In their controlled study, seven of ten patients with remitted Crohn’s Disease who excluded specific foods remained in remission for six months (Lancet 1985;2:177-180). In contrast, none of the ten similar patients who consumed an unrefined carbohydrate, fiber-rich diet were able to stay in remission for this length of time.

In a subsequent uncontrolled trial, the exclusion of certain foods enabled 51 of 77 patients to remain in remission for up to 51 months; the average annual relapse rate in these patients was less that 10%.

In my experience, the most significant breakthroughs for my patients with IBD have taken place with the “Specific Carbohydrate Diet” advocated by Elaine Gottschall in her book Breaking the Vicious Cycle (its foreword written by yours truly).

The basic theory underlying the SCD is that disease-producing bacteria and fungus spread their toxic humors in the intestines when a natural balance has been disrupted. This can arise several ways:

inadequate breast-feeding over-reliance on antacids use of antibiotics a diet high in sugar or starch parasites or harmful bacteria or yeast from food or water immunosuppression from disease, malnutrition or stress toxic chemicals in food or water natural aging of the GI tract use of aspirin and aspirin-like pain-killer (NSAIDs) that inflame the intestinal lining.

In a “vicious cycle,” harmful bugs proliferate, irritate the intestine, disrupt digestion, impair immunity, and foster fermentive degradation of certain hard-to-digest foods. The main dietary culprits: two-sugar and other enzymatically-resistant carbohydrates found in grains, certain starchy vegetables, certain fruits, table sugar, and lactose-rich dairy products.

Gottschall’s Specific Carbohydrate Diet is a balanced, varied program consisting of meat, fish, eggs and poultry with most vegetables, nuts, and some fruits and sugars allowed. Lactose-free dairy products are permitted, as are certain ingeniously-formulated grain-free breads, cookies and pastries consisting of nut-meal. Beans are usually able to be reintroduced within three months.

Indeed, the yeast connection is an important one in IBD. Some studies have shown increased sensitivity to Brewer’s and Baker’s yeast in colitis and Crohn’s sufferers. Avoidance of yeast and sugars with the Candida Diet, as well as the use of anti-fungal herbs and medications, often speeds resolution of IBD. Read more at www.drhoffman.com